Accessibility statement

This accessibility statement applies to Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust website.

This website is run by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. As a healthcare organisation, we understand how important it is for our patients and the people who care for them to easily access, perceive and understand the information they need. 

We are committed to making sure as many people as possible are able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

• change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
• zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen and without content being truncated or overlapping
• navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
•  listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA, Voiceover and Talkback)

We follow best practices and evidence-based guidance such as the NHS content style guide to make the wording on our website as simple to understand as possible, and continue to review our content so it’s written in plain English.

There is advice available online to help you make your device easier to use if you have a disability, including from the AbilityNet charity.

How accessible this website is

Parts of this website are not accessible. For example: 

• 1 in 4 people have a disability, so our new site is designed to allow everyone to access the information they need
• we have worked with people with disabilities to design and test our new site to make it as accessible as possible regardless of background, ability or needs. This was not as an afterthought, but as the main driver behind how it looks and works
• there are fewer words and a reduced number of PDFs to comply with legal requirements on accessibility. Since 2020, we have removed more than 80% of the PDFs from the website or converted them to HTML pages. PDFs are used only where the information is statutory or complex and cannot be converted to webpages
• the improved print function includes a bespoke design and layout, a large font size option, references for linked content, and the ability to print a range of pages within a section using page titles for reference
• this website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, making our content more accessible for people with additional needs, including neurodivergent and disabled people
• we have tested our site extensively, both with users on different browsers and devices and through an independent accessibility testing partner to ensure we meet required standards
• we know some parts of this website are not fully accessible

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format such as accessible PDF, large print, easy read or Braille, please contact us.

We will consider your request and reply to you within 5 working days.

If you cannot view our maps to find your way around our hospitals, contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) for directions.

Language support

We provide interpreting and translation services through the language support department. This can be in the form of face-to-face, video or telephone.

If you need an interpreter, or information about the care you are receiving in the language or format of your choice, please contact the service providing your medical care. You can also contact the language support service by emailing [email protected].

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

If you find any problems which are not listed on this page, please email us to let us know.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Technical information about this website's accessibility

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No.2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.   

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons. We are currently going through the issues and putting a fix for each one. We expect to complete them by April 2025.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Page structure and semantics

• Heading links within the sub menus are not marked up semantically (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A).
• Helper text and error messages are not associated with some text inputs (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A).
• Heading links for the page titles within the search results are not marked up semantically (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A) - we are working on a remediation and plan to deploy it by March 2025.
• Alphabet filter links are not marked up as ordered list items (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A) - we are working on a remediation and plan to deploy it by March 2025.
• Asterisk indicating required fields is not explained when using the step before printing of a page (3.3.2 Labels or Instructions A) - we are working on a remediation and plan to deploy it by March 2025.

Design, layout and colour contrast

• Custom focus indicator has insufficient contrast (1.1.1 Non-text Content AA) - we are working on a remediation for this issue and plan to deploy it by March 2025.

Keyboard interaction and focus management

• Context changes unexpectedly on interaction with filters (3.2.2 On Input A).
• Focus does not return to the “Menu” button upon dismissing the mobile menu (2.4.3 Focus Order A) - we are working on a remediation for this issue and plan to deploy it by March 2025.

Interactive components and dynamic content 

• The button that dismisses the hamburger menu has an inappropriate accessible name (4.1.2 Name Role Value A) - we are working on a remediation for this issue and plan to deploy it by March 2025.
• The presence of autocomplete suggestions for the search component seem to be announced inconsistently by VoiceOver (4.1.3 Status Messages AA) - we are working on a remediation for this issue and plan to deploy it by March 2025.

Documents and media

• Some videos contain important visual information that is not in the audio track. We are considering how we can create audio described versions of the videos. (1.2.3 Audio Description or Media Alternative (Pre-recorded)) and (1.2.5 (Audio Description (Pre-recorded)).
• This website contains approximately 300 documents, mainly in PDF format, some of which are not fully accessible to screen reader software.
• Around 100 of these PDF documents are wayfinding maps and cannot be converted to HTML pages. Our users tell us these maps are useful for finding their way within our hospitals and community sites. They will remain available while we find a digital wayfinding solution.
• We acknowledge that some of our documents may not be fully accessible, and we are conducting a full review with our external accessibility partner to determine the best approach and will update this statement with more details once the review is complete.
• An audit of our Annual Report has flagged some issues with colour contrast (WCAG 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum), page title (WCAG 2.4.2 Page titled) and missing alternative text for images (WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text content). We plan to address the findings as part of the documents review.

3^rd party content

We use the following 3rd-party suppliers, Shorthand and Trac, for some components on our webpages, which currently have accessibility limitations. We acknowledge these issues and are actively exploring solutions with the suppliers to improve accessibility.

The following accessibility issues have been identified:

• heading links for the job titles are not marked up semantically (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A)
• job details are not marked up as description list items (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A)
• a single link has been wrapped around the full job listing content (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A)
• heading semantics are used inappropriately (1.3.1 Info and Relationships A)
• focus does not remain on the “Sort by” dropdown when an option is selected (2.4.3 Focus Order A)

Content that's not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

• We use YouTube as our video player on some pages. This is a free service, and we are not in control of the player itself and so are not able to fix any accessibility issues identified with the player.
• We are aware that the YouTube video controls have insufficient contrast. This fails WCAG 2.2 AA success criterion 1.4.11 (Non-text contrast AA).
• We plan to keep some of the documents that were uploaded before 23 September 2018 and are not essential to our services. These are statutory documents and declarations.

What we're doing to improve accessibility

• We use online tools to perform a readability test and carry out basic accessibility checks when uploading new content to the website. We regularly commission an independent accessibility audit on a sample of pages to highlight areas requiring improvement. Our aim is to conduct accessibility audits every year.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 12 February 2025. It was last reviewed on 17 February 2025. 

This website was last tested on 12 February 2025. The test was carried out by Nomensa, who manually assessed a sample of representative pages, including the usage of assistive technologies.

Contact us

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 020 7188 5577